


The Three of Ogygia

by fabiosisalert



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-03 02:19:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1727513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabiosisalert/pseuds/fabiosisalert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annabeth and Piper are enga(y)ged, and it's time to pay the visit to mother Aphrodite. Unfortunately, things don't exactly go as planned as their precarious flight takes a detour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Characters belong to Rick Riordan.

“Are you sure she’s going to like me?” Annabeth asked, casting an incredulous on her girlfriend. “Positive,” Piper reassured her. The two were seated somewhat comfortably aboard a shabby, mayhem-attracting American plane that squeezed in just six people including the pilot. It wasn't anything special or particularly guaranteeing of their safety, but Aphrodite had repeated that there was absolutely no other option, that is, if Annabeth truly was coming to visit like she promised.

Piper had explained exactly how disappointed her mother had been when she relayed the information of her and Annabeth’s engagement. Of course, Aphrodite was absolutely devastated. How could her favorite daughter, her Piper, be getting married and never have introduced the blushing bride? (She really could have cared less that Piper’s fiancée was a woman. Aphrodite had told her disturbingly detailed tales about her own time with the ladies, something Piper wanted to forget desperately.) Annabeth had interjected that it could be possible they never met due to the thousands of miles between them—Aphrodite chose to reside in Paris after her lingerie sales skyrocketed in Europe.

The truth of the matter was, though, that Piper believed there was a 50/50 opportunity Annabeth and her mother would get along. They were both headstrong, intellectual people, and they carried their pride like gold. They were so alike that there was an equal chance they would be hugging or at each other’s throats in the first minutes of their visit.

Still, _this_ plane? Annabeth firmly believed the mother-daughter duo was planning something if this was the only flight available to France. Or maybe Piper wasn’t part of the scheme at all. Her mother could be behind this whole journey, and Annabeth was certain Aphrodite was trickier than she looked. _Ha_ , Annabeth jokingly thought to herself, _the trouble BOTH our mothers could cause together is insurmountable_. Athena had known about the engagement long before, and had cornered Annabeth several times to be sure she was making the right decision and had considered all the options. It was at least as annoying as the guilt trip Aphrodite was trying to pull.

A dingy, cracked overhead light appeared at the front of the passenger aisles instructing them to secure their seatbelts, although it took Annabeth a few tries to discern that with her dyslexia jumbling the letters. They struggled to keep the tattered buckles around their waists, and hoped the ropes were still solid enough not to tear in flight.

Annabeth watched a single, homely stewardess board the plane, and grabbed Piper’s hand. Piper was a comforting presence and insanely skilled at detecting the emotions Annabeth took such precautions to hide. As soon as their skin met, a rush of warm, loving calm washed through Annabeth like a tidal wave. She, slightly more at ease, smiled and turned to her window overlooking the minuscule runway. Annabeth didn't have a minute to relax though, as she quickly noticed the sky muddling itself with deep, grey clouds, a stormy reflection of her eyes.

She flipped her thick blonde ponytail back and asked the stewardess with deep inflection of concern, “Excuse me, but isn't the weather going to be a problem? It’s getting darker out and--” The stewardess sighed and rubbed her wrinkled forehead aggressively, interrupting Annabeth in a monotonous drawl, “Our pilot has deemed the air clear for take-off. Please keep all questions and concerns to yourself, thank you.” The woman turned around and entered the cockpit abruptly.

Piper smiled cheekily at her fiancée. Annabeth struggled to keep her frustration under an appropriate volume cap, and clenched Piper’s fingers with increasing strength. “Okay, okay, _ow_ ,” Piper objected. “Oh,” Annabeth grumbled, “sorry.” Piper took her (most likely bruised) hand and massaged it, internally laughing at Annabeth’s short temper. Annabeth stood from her inside seat and started to scoot past Piper’s knees. “Wait,” Piper lightly touched Annabeth’s passing arm. Annabeth continued, “I’m just going to talk to the pilot.”

Without warning, the plane jerked forward violently and began its ascent. “Whoa!” Annabeth cried as she fell on her front. Piper attempted to rein her in as she lurched towards the dirty, worn ground, but with Annabeth’s muscle and weight advantage, Piper was yanked down on top of her. “Okay, now it’s my turn to say ‘ow’,” Annabeth groaned beneath her.

A wild giggle burst from Piper, and Annabeth caught it contagiously. They held each other as the plane leaped through thousands of feet, their ears popping and cheeks meeting. “What if we rode like this the entire trip?” Annabeth suggested sarcastically in Piper’s ear. Piper raised her eyebrows and shifted through the mess of their tangled limbs to pinch Annabeth’s nose with her lips. “I’d have to kiss you the whole way,” she answered. Annabeth grinned and wrapped her arms around Piper’s soft, tan waist. They cuddled together in the brisk air of the plane, which definitely lacked a decent heating and cooling system, and were grateful for the thick jackets they layered over their orange summer camp shirts.  Eventually, though, Annabeth figured it would be better if they both survived the possible incoming storm, and returned them to their seats. Still, they found ways around the rules.

Their middle armrest wasn’t stiffly secured into its lowered position, and they shifted it parallel to their seatbacks deviously. Annabeth asked Piper detailed questions about her mother in the midst of their cuddling and forced Piper to elaborate if her answers didn’t cover everything Annabeth needed to know. Piper grew tired of this quickly, and returned fire with an interrogation pointed at Annabeth’s family, even though she already knew everything there was about the Chases. That didn’t keep Annabeth from dutifully reminding Piper of her mother and father’s divorce, her step-mother and how little she truly felt for the woman, the two younger half-brothers on her father’s side, and the plentiful bunch of half-siblings her mother had created.

“I don’t remember anymore, but which one was your favorite on your mom’s side of the family?” Piper asked in the middle of a yawn. “Malcolm,” Annabeth answered. Piper nodded, nearly half-asleep, and wondered, “Are you planning on inviting _all_ your family members to the wedding? Because I don’t think there’ll be enough cake.” Annabeth bit her lip in consideration. Piper simpered at the expression, it being one of the habits she found most adorable in her fiancée. The longer Annabeth debated who she could fit into their ceremony, which the relative count of seemed to be growing by the minute, the more tired she realized she was, too. Somewhere along the flight they both fell asleep tucked in each other’s arms. It wasn’t until the warning alarm howled that they awoke.

The stewardess shuffled through the separating curtain hurriedly. She raised her panicked voice over the booming thunder outside, although it never lost its flat tone, “Get up! Grab the oxygen masks deployed above your heads!” Annabeth snapped to attention alertly, and did as she was told by hurrying to secure a drowsy Piper’s mask before her own. “What’s going on?” Piper mumbled through the silicone headgear. Annabeth shook her head and managed to fasten her own mask safely. The stewardess took to the seat across the aisle from them, and rushed to shout, “We’re goin’ down!” before plugging her face into another air mask.

Annabeth’s breathing became more and more rapid (thankfully, instead of ceasing completely like it should have without the assisted air-way) and she went into an ADHD survival mode. Her brain jumped from topic to topic as the plane lowered itself from five hundred to four hundred, three hundred, two hundred, and one hundred feet in the air. She was flashing through the images of the unknown pilot, the stewardess, her and Piper clutching the wings of the plane and struggling to stay afloat and alive. Piper ripped off their winter coats and fastened their safety vests as she fully comprehended what was happening, but Annabeth continued to think of tropical fish and predators lurking in the water. She wondered where exactly they were to be stranded and how they would call for help. She blinked ahead to all the strange and dangerous possibilities they could find, but still, did not anticipate her fate.

She heard the stewardess scream through her mask as the plane hit steady and fast in the rocking foam of the ocean. _Thank God for Piper and floatation devices_ , Annabeth thought as she watched the ocean crowd their small plane and they were forced into the lapping sea water. Annabeth ripped their oxygen masks free and hustled Piper from the plane first. She hooked Piper to the edge of the plane’s right wing and followed suit. As she clasped onto the edge, Annabeth turned to help the stewardess.

No one waited behind her. Confused and agitated that this woman wasn’t falling into the line of action, Annabeth crept back to the sinking doorway. She yelled over the thunder and lightning, “Lady? If you want to live, you’ve got to get out now!” No one appeared. Annabeth shouted again, “Lady?! Pilot?!” No answer. She and Piper were alone in the middle of the ocean.

“Annabeth, look,” Piper called from her sinking plane wing. Annabeth dog-paddled as quickly as she could to her side and followed Piper’s pointing arm to—a bird? “What kind is that?” Piper asked. Annabeth squinted into the bleak horizon. The small, white creature frantically fluttered towards them through the downpour, and Annabeth recognized it as a dove. Wait, a dove? They had to have crashed close to the coast of France. Annabeth had gone through pages of French landscapes, common animals, plant life, and of course, birds, and she was certain doves were not part of their natural routine. Then again, her plane falling into the middle of nowhere wasn’t routine, either.

Piper said, “If there’s a bird, there’s land. We should swim in the direction it came from.” Annabeth agreed and they began their journey. It was another hour of paddling before the two took a break in heavy breaths and resigned to treading water. Suddenly, Annabeth cried through her dry throat, “Piper! Piper! A boat, over there!” Piper twisted in her safety vest frantically, but saw no boat. “Are you sure?” Piper asked, looking at Annabeth like the humidity of the storm might have been going to her head. Annabeth bobbed her whole body in the ocean as a nod, “Yes! It’s right there!”

Piper gasped as a boat seemed to appear out of thin air. She was certain it had created itself from the rolling waves, but at this point, didn’t really care if the boat came from the ocean or Hell itself. She was happy to be out of the water. They helped each other inside and noticed only a single set of oars. Deciding to take turns whenever the other was tired, Annabeth grabbed them first and forced Piper to take the second shift and break for a nap (which was surprisingly easy for her to do in the tempest). It relaxed Annabeth to hear Piper’s deafening snores above the rain, no matter how annoying they had been in their university dorm.

As she rowed, Annabeth got a chance to really look at Piper like she hadn’t in a while. They were both so busy with college that it had become rare to see the other for more than a few minutes in their shared room or during their lunch break, and final exams hadn’t helped. Annabeth noticed the softness of Piper’s beautifully tan features and how the raindrops hung from Piper's nose, the way she chopped her hair and left tiny braids and feathers within its hurricane of chocolate brown, and wished she could see Piper’s eyes again and watch them change from brown to blue to green.

What felt like an eternity of white noise later, Piper pulled free from her dreams as the sky had turned to an endless, clear stretch of stars and light. She yawned, stretched, and glared at Annabeth who still sorely propelled them into the sea. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” she grouched and stood in the rocking boat. Annabeth answered simply, “I wasn’t tired.” “Oh, please,” Piper chastised her, “it’s got to be, like, at least three hours later. Of course you’re tired.”

“Am not.”

“Are too!”

“No, definitely not.”

“You SO are! Let me take the oars!”

“No, Piper, I’ve got this.”

“Annabeth, I swear to God, I’ll--”

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll…I’ll…”

“Mhm.”

“Just give me the oars!”

Annabeth grinned and traded seats, passing the rowers to Piper. “See, I’m not even sleepy,” she mumbled as she curled up at the tip of the boat. Piper’s turn continued late into the night, but she felt comfortable there, using her strength for the good of their survival. She felt worthwhile. It helped that the night sky was alive with twinkling lights and an army of shooting stars, each chasing after one another. Piper convinced herself she could see a few of the Greek constellations her father had taught her after another hit Tristan McLean movie, and she felt like she saw a new one, a young girl about to shoot an arrow. She brushed it off as her imagination.

They rotated back and forth in “I’m-not-tired-yet” periods of time, right until Annabeth shook Piper awake the next day, mid-afternoon. “Piper,” she said softly, “we’ve found an island.” Piper rubbed her eyes until they were sore and looked over the bright, shimmering water. Sure enough, a soft white sand and nature smothered beach waited ahead of her. Piper laughed garishly in relief. The two girls hugged and kissed tightly in their rocking boat, and Piper forced Annabeth out of the way to let her paddle the last stretch.

They rowed as closely as they could to the shore and finished the journey in loud, messy splashes of water and alleviation. Both were a mess of snickers as they collapsed on the soft bed of land and worked to regain their land legs. They toppled over countless times, belting out giggles at the other every single fall. Eventually, Annabeth sighed and collected herself. She wiped a sweaty strand of blonde from her forehead and suggested, “I think we should start making camp or finding shelter.” Piper agreed, and together they went hunting within the wilderness.

They traveled through the rougher edges of the lush, green forest and it all seemed perfectly natural to Annabeth, but Piper was becoming more and more certain that there was something synthetic about the place. Flowers were planted in rows, the wildlife was neatly organized, and she was positive she could hear footsteps behind them. Annabeth acknowledged Piper’s worries, and took her hand, saying, “Whatever wants to get you has to go through me.” Piper smiled gratefully, but wasn’t sure if the land was hostile, or they were invading someone’s home.

As they walked farther and farther from their original spot, Annabeth took notice as well. They  were skirting the other side of the island in the late evening when Annabeth tugged Piper down into a crouch beside her. “What?” Piper asked worriedly. Annabeth pointed to a wide, open cave in the distance. Light glowed from within it visibly and both girls could hear bustling movement. “You think it’s a pack of tourists or something?” Piper wondered. Annabeth shook her head and whispered, “You were right that we aren’t alone, but that's not a popular vacation spot.”

“No, it’s not,” a voice concurred at their backs.

Annabeth and Piper twisted a foot in the air and raised their fists, ready to attack. They came to face a young, smaller girl standing behind them with her hands clasped tightly in front of her waist. “Hello,” she frowned, her cinnamon hair waving in the tropical breeze. “My name is Calypso. It looks like Zeus is still a little bitch.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls begin their stay on Ogygia without much harmony.

Annabeth’s eyes flitted up and down Calypso’s figure. She wondered how long it would take to knock her to the ground and flee, with Piper’s help of course. This girl was thin, short, obviously bonkers, and Annabeth urgently reminded herself that with the sky’s light dissolving so rapidly, they had no time to waste. She glanced questioningly at Piper, who appeared to be just as bewildered, maybe more so. An awkward silence had appeared in the air as Calypso crossed her arms and glared disapprovingly at her new guests.

            Annabeth summoned her will and broke the quiet. “You said Zeus? As in the Greek god, lord of the skies, king of Olympus Zeus?” Calypso impatiently rolled her eyes. “Duh,” she mocked. “How else would you have gotten here? Zeus sends someone for me every few months, and it looks like it’s mail time again.” Piper raised her eyebrows and perched her hands on her hips. “Excuse me?” she asked. “So we’re just two packages to you?” Calypso shrugged casually. She stalked around the pair and declared, “You’re greasy, smelly packages, in fact. Follow me. There’s a spring near the middle of the island that should help with the stench.”

            Piper clenched her jaw, offended, and pointedly faced Annabeth. “Well?” Annabeth looked down at her ocean battered clothing and caught a thick whiff of the nasty scent emanating from her armpits. She mulled it over for a moment and bobbed her head left and right, weighing the options. She considered the facts that they had just met Calypso and she was a total stranger, she didn’t seem very polite, and Piper definitely was not her biggest fan, but also that they _were_ drenched in bodily liquids and under no circumstances would be considered a fresh patch of moonlace. “Alright,” Annabeth finally confirmed. Piper clawed into her own sides as she hastily tightened her hold on her waist.

            Annabeth puckered one side of her mouth in an expression of “choose your battles.” She stretched a hand to Piper, her eyes trailing after Calypso who was steadily growing farther and farther away. Piper dejectedly shoved her palm into Annabeth’s, and mumbled grumpy nothings as they jogged to catch up with their strange new island guide.

            Calypso took them through the cluttered forest and was unmoved by glittering eyes that followed them every which way. Annabeth assumed she was used to it after living here, but how long had she been staying? She was eager to understand the exact time Calypso had been trapped originally and the point she found herself insane and cursing Zeus. Piper, on the other hand, was locked into a deathly grudge. She stumbled absently after Calypso and Annabeth, focused on her outrage, and wondered exactly when they would be arriving at this special little spring.

            Suddenly, the girls were stopped by Calypso’s still back. She sighed wistfully and looked out over a bald patch of sea green grass like there was something magical lurking within its field. Piper bitterly rolled her eyes and wondered, “Is this it? You’re crazier than you seemed if you think this is some kind of-”

            “Shh,” Calypso hushed her. Piper’s eyes were ablaze with blooming spitfire, and she would have grabbed a fistful of Calypso’s luscious braid had Annabeth not firmly secured her forearm. Piper jerked free of the steel grip ever so rebelliously, and huffed off to the side. Annabeth asked in a dimmed voice, “What are we looking for? Should we move on?” Calypso only shook her head and held a thin pointer finger to her pouty lips. She lifted her paper face to the sky and gathered a hefty breath.

            In the corner of Annabeth’s eye, she could see Piper ogling the both of them in attempted subtlety, although it was perfectly obvious. She gripped a smirk that tickled the corners of her cheeks and begged to be released. Annabeth could be sure of herself when she believed Piper would come around to Calypso soon. In the meantime, the island girl remained still as a statue. Annabeth edged closely to her side and looked to the other end of the clearing. The plants fluttered in the breeze, birds chirped from tree to tree, and bugs were always present. But what did any of this nature have to do with finding their spring?

            “That way,” Calypso snapped, startling the girls. Her slender arm pointed east, but the rest of her body remained the same. She left her eyes blanketed shut and beamed into the darkening evening, a curious sight to Annabeth, but evidently not Piper. She rapidly decided she couldn’t take the crazy girl shtick anymore and demanded, “Give us actual directions or we’ll just go back to the beach and your dumb, wild goose chase will be over.” Annabeth elbowed her in the side, but Piper glared into the innocent Calypso’s closed eyes, which didn’t budge an inch. “Fine,” Piper snapped. “C’mon, Annabeth. We can wash off in the ocean anyway.”

            Piper started to march in a hissy back to their boat, ready to tip it on its side and spend a cold night beneath its splintering shelter, when she noticed Annabeth keeping as still as Calypso. She groaned. “Not you, too? Annabeth! We need! To! Go!” Sliding on her heels in the damp growth, Piper whipped to tug her fiancée along with her. “No,” Annabeth murmured. “Something’s about to happen. She gets a lot of visitors, Piper. Get over it and let it go.”

            Calypso hummed. It was one of the stranger things Annabeth or Piper had ever heard, and it didn’t follow any tune, but was a beautiful sound they couldn’t help but enjoy. Annabeth badly wanted to interrupt and spend past hours inquiring what Calypso thought she could do, but she feared it would prematurely end whatever psycho process was beginning.

            Calypso’s pointing arm waved in the rhythmic noises she created, and soon her leg was following, then the other, and the opposite arm, and eventually her entire body. She grooved in stunning fluidity that made both girls poignantly jealous. Her hair rippled in gorgeous, wave-like patterns that didn’t seem to be a part of reality, and her moonlight skin glowed. Annabeth took a step backwards and into Piper as she gave Calypso room to completely dance. She took Piper in her arms and muttered, “How’s that for ‘wild goose chase’?” “I think this is just the start,” Piper griped in exchange.

            Calypso’s humming grew bolder and more upfront the longer time ticked by. Piper began to wonder how long this would take and if the sky would be an endless pitch of black before she was finished, when Calypso’s noises peaked and abruptly, they were surrounded by silence. Calypso opened her eyes and turned to the girls expectantly. “Well?” she asked.

            Annabeth knit her eyebrows together, puzzled. “What do you mean, ‘Well?’? Don’t you have the answers?” Calypso shrugged and spun to bound through the clearing, while Annabeth and Piper shuffled to keep up and didn’t say a word. They were confused and unsure of what should be happening. Did they do something wrong? Did Calypso think she had spoken with Zeus, and he hated them? What if—

            “The whole thing was a joke,” Calypso chuckled ahead. Piper felt a spark of bitterness in her chest and balled her fists. She accused, “What? You mean you really are just a lunatic in the woods?” Annabeth squeezed Piper’s hand firmly, giving her the signal to hold on, stop, we still need her, when Piper yelled, “Is there even a spring or was that just another ‘joke’, too?!” At her back, the girls could see Calypso touch her braid with one hand and stroke it from the third notch down to its tail. She explained, “No, there really is a spring. A spring I really won’t show you if you don’t give me a little credit. I wanted to see just how crazy you actually think I am. Ha! Spiritual dances like that are for the Indians.”

            “Hey! Watch it,” Piper spat. She attempted to surge forward and land a few good hits, but Annabeth had anticipated her and once again dragged Piper back. Calypso shrugged and went on, “I don’t believe in that shit, anyway. Like Zeus would listen to anyone _dancing_ for him to give them rain, or whatever it is they dance for. You know what? Now that I’m sure you think I’m a lunatic, we’re gonna have a lot of fun.” Annabeth kept her eyes locked on Calypso in anticipation. She almost had to laugh. This girl was definitely nuts, but maybe not the kind they foresaw. They might even be on the way to getting along.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls finally freshen up.

Calypso slapped leafy branches from their path and continued to trek through the mysterious jungle as the lead. Annabeth had broken a slight sweat behind her, but it wasn’t like she could smell any viler than she already did. _Ugh_ , she thought, _this spring better come with its own soap._ Piper remained at the back of the line, glaring daggers into Calypso’s wavy caramel hair. She bitterly thought of a number of different flaws Calypso definitely/probably/maybe had, like an infestation of lice. Calypso had been on the island for a while, right? Piper thought it was plausible she could be crawling with burrowing vermin. Or, she at least hoped so.

            Piper was forced to pay attention to the task at hand as Calypso announced, “Only a couple more meters, guys, and watch out for animal poop. They like to ‘go’ around the water.” Annabeth nodded and tightly scrunched her nose as she caught a waft of a prime example at her feet. A large, soggy brown pile lay before her, and she leapt over it desperately. Piper nearly wasn’t as lucky, and forced herself to jerk to a stop just in front of the dung. She cringed inward and daintily maneuvered around it, off the worn path they followed and into the sidebrush of the forest. She could swear she heard Calypso’s giggles ringing ahead of her, but understood that now was not the time as the ground was, in fact, littered with animal feces.

            They paced cautiously ahead for another few minutes before Calypso called, “Alright, are you ready for this?!” Annabeth nudged to Calypso’s back, who stood behind a curtain of slimy, stringy vines and grinned with anticipation. Piper crossed her arms and huffed, but still came close to see whatever Calypso was building up to. She said, “Fine, but we don’t have all night. It’s getting dark.” Calypso nodded and grandly swept the plants out of their way with a flourish. Annabeth and Piper gasped in astonishment.

            The palm trees, gracefully swaying in the humid breeze, circled a decent sized pool. It held perfectly still against the wind, and lay like a beautiful sapphire as it was edged by silken white sand. A large rock jutted from the middle and proclaimed itself high enough for diving. The girls were amazed by the view they had of the sky, left open by the clearing. Stars hoarded above in the looming darkness, formed collections and a few constellations that Piper could recognize again, and gave a soft light to their spring. The moon was present, too, dabbed into the center of the stars’ families. The faint scent of rain lurked within, as if by magic the clouds only kept this particular land lush and healthy.

            “Wow,” Annabeth muttered. Piper nodded, and stepped closer to her fiancée. She took Annabeth’s hand gently and wondered, “Is it always like this?” Calypso answered beside her, “Pretty much. The weather doesn’t change a lot down here. Sometimes it gets a little colder than usual, but that’s it. Makes you miss the snow and mountains, huh?” Piper shook her head. “Not at all.”

            Suddenly, Annabeth shot off like a rocket and yanked away from the other two. “I’m getting in first!” she shouted and dashed madly for the water. Piper laughed vibrantly and retorted, “Not if I tackle you!” She charged after her, the two leaving Calypso alone at the forest’s opening. She watched from a distance as Piper shoved Annabeth playfully out of the way and they both hurriedly stripped to their grimy underwear. She felt no need to join them, so she only sat in the thick, cushy greenery and observed. It was a spectacle; Annabeth grabbed Piper, shrieking, from behind and swung her back and forth over the pond, bellowing, “One…two…three!” and tossed her into the water. Piper burst back into the air with her normally thick, wavy hair plastered to her face and neck, and gasping for breath. Still, she was giggling and snorting water from her nose.

            “Cannonball!” Annabeth yelled. She took a running start from the trees, leapt into the air, gripped her legs tightly, and collided with the water in a massive splash. Piper shrieked again, giggling all the same. Annabeth paddled out to her and teased, “And you said there’d be no spring!” Piper snorted and splashed a heaving of water in her face. She swam to land, the depth of the water in the center being from around nine to ten feet, and finally noticed Calypso’s reluctance to join them. She cupped her mouth and hollered, “Are you getting in, coward?” Calypso retorted, “Maybe later! Don’t you need soap or something? I should go get it.” Piper nodded and flipped back to the pool just as Annabeth had managed to climb the diving rock.

            “Woo!” she cheered her on, and Annabeth flashed her winning smile. She bounced on the tips of her toes eagerly, slapped her hands together above her head, and swan-dived into the spring. Piper quickly stroked to her as Annabeth rose from the depths of the gleaming water and, a laugh breaking out of her, kissed Annabeth against her lips. She wrapped her smooth, tan arms around Annabeth’s shoulders, and they floated together quietly for a few minutes. Annabeth sighed and wondered peacefully, “Would it be that bad if we stayed here forever?”

“Kind of, yeah,” Piper softly chuckled. Annabeth knew Piper was right, but clung to the lasting and prideful thought that she could change her fiancée’s mind. She felt serene at last for the little time she and Piper had spent alone without the stress of college, her architectural design projects, and her family. Still, Annabeth found worry remained after so many layers of angst had been removed by the disconnected island.

Annabeth whispered sharply, “I’m not sure if we can trust her.” Piper almost released Annabeth from their swirling, swimming embrace in surprise. She asked, “Who? Calypso?” Annabeth nodded slightly. Piper continued, confused as ever, “I thought you were all for believing in her and being so…weirdly nice.”

Annabeth raised her voice, “I am nice! Anyway, that’s not the point. Of course I was. You were already being angry and belligerent, and someone had to play out the friendliness so she’d show us the ropes of the island. Still…she might just be acting. She’s already given one well done performance as a lunatic, so why wouldn’t she be able to look sweet and helpful?” Piper pursed her lips. She mulled over Annabeth’s actions of the last day, and found a few cracks in the armor of kindness that only someone who had known her closely would be able to find.

“Okay,” Piper suggested, “so we get her to like you even more, and then what? We force her to give us a raft and a way home out of love?” Annabeth shook her head, her dense, blonde ringlets wetly following her. “We--”

A rustling of light footsteps sounded to the side and Calypso emerged, calling, “Who wants soap and who wants shampoo? There’s enough for everybody, but you’re going to have to share!” Annabeth detached herself from Piper and glided to the edge of the water, a plastic grin pinching her cheeks. “That’s so generous of you, Calypso,” she said sweetly and beached herself against the shore, “Are you sure you don’t want to join us? The water’s really great.” She offered her hand, and Calypso tucked a small, green tinted bar and a pale bottle inside. “That’s homemade soap, formulated with parsley,” Calypso described charitably, “and that’s Neutrogena’s travel sized shampoo.”

Piper floated into the conversation and asked skeptically, “Your island makes Neutrogena products?” Calypso snickered and rubbed the caramel end of her braid, “No. We do get plenty of stranded kids though, and sometimes they come with perks.” Annabeth giggled along and kept the suspicion removed from her voice entirely. Piper was impressed. Until Annabeth had wanted her to know she was faking, she hadn’t had a clue. Whether the fact that her fiancée was a gifted liar was a positive or a negative, Piper couldn’t tell, but in the moment she let it go and decided she would have plenty of time to figure that out once they were off this godforsaken island.

As Piper was lost in a slight hand of thought, Annabeth had drifted back into the water and was nearly demanding Calypso’s company. “C’mon,” she yelled, “you’ve got to let yourself have fun. Don’t you do enough work here, making soaps and everything?” Piper made the snap choice to go along with Annabeth’s plan. She twisted to face Calypso as she pushed backwards into the soothing pond and added, “It’ll be more fun if you get in, too.” This seemed to bump Calypso just enough that she shrugged, peeled away her sleeveless, immaculate white dress complete with a circular neckline trimmed in gold, and leaped into the water with her fingers firmly plugged around her nose.

Annabeth and Piper whooped excitedly and traded glances of a plan put into action. Calypso resurfaced, beaming, and accepted the cool middle of the spring. Piper followed and gave her a supportive smile. She noticed that Calypso’s braid had fallen apart as she collided with the pond, and her soft, fawn hair spilled about gracefully. The water reflected her smooth, pearl skin and the shy glances flitting back and forth across her eyes. Piper immediately felt a tide of guilt rise within her, but why? She didn’t want to know, and instead, asked Annabeth to pass the parsley soap.


End file.
